Chemical warfare

by Amos A. Fries; Clarence J. West

All the Allies soon recognized that fact as shown by their drawing those troops almost entirely away from the fighting lines. In some cases dark-skinned troops were kept only as shock troops to be replaced by the more highly developed Caucasian when the line had to be held for days under the deadly fire of the counter attack. The German idea, and our own idea prior to the World War, was that semi-savages could stand the rigors and terrors of war better than the highly sensitive white man. War proved that to be utterly false.

Familiarity with Gas Necessary. The same training that makes for advancement in science, and success in manufacture in peace, gives the control of the body that holds the white man to the firing line no matter what its terrors. A great deal of this comes because the white man has had trained out of him nearly all superstition. He has had drilled into him for hundreds of years that powder and high explosive can do certain things and no more. If the soldier is not to be afraid of gas we must give him an equal knowledge of it, its dangers, and its limitations. The old adage says, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Perhaps that is not quite true, but we all know that it breeds callousness and forgetfulness; that the man manufacturing dynamite or other more dangerous explosives takes chances that we who do not engage in such manufacture shudder at.

Edgewood Chemists Not Afraid. All of this has direct application to training with chemical warfare materials in peace. We believe that all opposition to chemical warfare today can be divided into two classes—those who do not understand it and those who are afraid of it—ignorance and cowardice. Our chemists at Edgewood Arsenal are every day toying with the most powerful chemical compounds; toying with mixtures they know nothing of, not knowing what instant they may induce an explosion of some fearful poisonous gas. But they have learned how to protect themselves. They have learned that if they stop breathing and get out of that place and on the windward side they are safe. They have been at that work long enough to do that automatically.

Staff Officers Must Think of Gas in Every Problem. The staff officer must train the army man in peace with all chemical warfare materials or he will lose his head in war and become a casualty. The general staff officers and commanding generals must so familiarize themselves with these gases and their general use that they will think them in all their problems just exactly as they think of the Infantry, or of the Cavalry, or of the tanks or of the Artillery in every problem. On them rests the responsibility that these gases are used properly in battle. If plans before the battle do not include these materials for every arm and in the proper quantities of the proper kinds they will not be used properly on the field of battle and on them will rest the responsibility.

They are not expected to know all the details of gases and their uses, but they will be expected to consider the use of gas in every phase of preparing plans and orders and then to appeal to the chemical warfare officers for the details that will enable them to use the proper gases and the proper quantities. They cannot go into those details any more than they can go into the details of each company of infantry. If they try to do that they are a failure as staff officers.

Effect of Masks on Troops. The very best of masks cause a little decrease in vision, a little increase in breathing resistance, and a little added discomfort in warm weather, and hence the soldier must learn to use them under all conditions. But above all in the future he must be so accustomed to the use of the mask that he will put it on automatically—almost in his sleep as it were. We have tear gases, today, so powerful and so sudden in their action that it is doubtful if one man out of five who has had only a little training can get his mask on if subject to the tear gas alone—that is, with tear gas striking him with full force before he is aware of it.

Effectiveness of Gas in World War. In the past war more than 27 out of every 100 Americans killed and wounded suffered from gas alone. You may say that many of the wounds were light. That is true; but those men were put out of the battle line for from one to four months—divisions, corps and armies almost broken up—and yet the use of gas in that war was a child’s game compared to what it will be in the future.

It is even said that many of them were malingerers. Perhaps they were, but do you not suppose that there were at least as many malingerers among the enemy as there were in our own ranks? Furthermore, if you can induce malingering it is a proper method of waging war, and unless our boasted ability is all a myth we should have fewer malingerers under conditions of battle than any other nation.

Strategy of Gas at Picardy Plains. Let us go back now to the strategy of gas in war. Following the cloud gas came tear gases and poisonous gases in shells and bombs. A little advance in tactics here and a little there, the idea, though, in the early days being only to produce casualties. As usual the Germans awoke first to the fact that gas might be used strategically and on a large scale. And thus we find that ten days before he began the battle of Picardy Plains he deluged many sections of the front with mustard gas. He secured casualties by the thousands, but he secured something of greater importance. He wore out the physical vigor and lowered the morale of division after division, thus paving the way for the break in the British Army which almost let him through to the sea.

He used non-persistent gases up to the very moment when his own men reached the British lines, thereby reducing the efficiency of British rifle and artillery fire and saving his own men. And this is just a guide to the future. A recent writer in the Field Artillery Journal states that gas will probably not be used in the barrage because of its probable interference with the movement of our own troops. In making that statement he forgot the enemy and you cannot do that if you expect to win a war.